Having registered here in Greece on the Australian Embassy’s website for event notifications, true to form, they recently alerted me to a series of Australian plays – all being staged in Greek. The venue hosting these six, award-winning Australian, theatrical works continuing until April, is the ‘Aggelon Vima’ theatre in downtown Athens.
This lovely theatre is managed by creative director, author and former practicing lawyer, Margarita Dalamaga-Kalogirou. She tells me that her interest in theatre was piqued “by attending theatre performances since the aged of four, with my father, an out-of-the-ordinary lorry driver and theatre lover.”
Leaving me awe struck, Ms Kalogirou patiently describes her personal involvement in every theatrical season at Aggelon Vima, including the current Australia themed one.
“I did the research, chose the plays, translated them and developed the idea of one common set representing the country’s symbolism. I also worked with PR people and graphic artists for the communication and promotion of this project, as well as choosing the directors and essentially supervising the whole thing,” she says.
As to her view of what modern theatre can represent in everyday life, she says: “It plays the role of a mirror reflecting contemporary life and culture. What we finally see nowadays in contemporary theatre performances is up to the person who manufactures this mirror (ie. playwrights) and it is up to the person who holds up this mirror (ie. mainly directors, but, also, actors and production teams).”
Ms Kalogirou subsequently gives credit to the Australian Embassy’s role in supporting these plays, particularly to Alison Duncan, the current Australian Ambassador to Greece.
“Ms Duncan is a person highly gifted for this position and there is no doubt that she will leave her mark in the field of developing strong and long standing bonds between Australian and Greek cultures,” she says.
Though Ms Kalogirou hasn’t yet been to Australia, but “would love to see and learn more of this fascinating country”, her choice of the six Australian plays bear testament to this.
She states: “Australian drama production is stunning and Greek audiences had no real knowledge about it. My deep and lengthy research on contemporary Australian drama revealed 35 plays – all of great interest. I finally chose the following six for the repertory of the current theatre season, ie. WONNANGATTA by Angus Cerini, RUBY MOON by Matt Cameron, ONE LONG NIGHT IN THE LAND OF NOD by Duncan Graham, STOLEN by Jane Harrison, RICE by Michele Lee and THE BLEEDING TREE by Angus Cerini because of their variety and interest in the subjects they are handling and because they created in my mind the feeling and certainty that they would make memorable performances before the eyes of Greek theatre lovers.”
The ‘Aggelon Vima’ Arts space itself is architecturally striking, as its heritage listing supports. It’s a compact three-storey, restored old villa with neoclassical and old world features inside and out. Upstairs spaces include the foyer/ “music hall” which hosts live events (at present, ‘Rembetises Psihes’ live music show), while further up the next flight of stairs is the comfortable and modern theatre.
The whole set up is certainly more than a pretty face. Impressive in more ways than one, Ms Kalorgirou tells me that it was built in the 1920s and since its founding as the current theatre in 2005 “has presented roughly 250 theatre performances, with 90% of the cases hosting plays and playwrights in Greece for the first time – in our theatre. There have also been 200 music performances in our music hall, 150 art exhibitions in our galleries, festivals, social events, seminars, etc.”
So far I’ve attended two plays at the Aggelon Vima, with more following. ‘Ruby Moon’, the first play I saw here is a psychological thriller written in 2003, by Australian author Matt Cameron. It primarily features two Greek actors portraying the parental angst of the disappearance of their daughter, little Ruby, believed kidnapped from their local street.
The play brought to my mind, the not so distant past’s idealism of suburbia – which in reality hides many dark secrets, including unintended alienation. Surrealist touches within the performance caused me to question whether Ruby was actually kidnapped, and or if she ever actually existed?
The two main Greek actors playing Ruby’s parents were superb; their talent highlighted in their ability to flawlessly shift between playing the different characters of their many neighbours.
I also saw the play ‘One Long Night In The Land of Nod’, written in 2005 by Australian Duncan Graham. Bearing references to the Biblical Cain and Abel, this play is about two brothers – Kane, but also Aaron, and is set in a modern context on a sheep farm in country Australia.
Kane is an educated city slicker of sorts, while Aaron remained at the sheep farm where both brothers grew up. Circumstances such as their fathers serious illness and pending will, unite them again. In such a backdrop, family history, cultural city/rural references and financial, as well as psychological issues are highlighted within the brothers relationship.
The play’s exaggerated swearing and sexism imply an awkwardness often inherent in male relationships, whether conforming consciously or not, to imposed gender stereotypes. This subsequent, two (Greek) actor show results in sometimes comic, but essential insightful and tragic outcomes.
As yet I haven’t seen the third play to date, titled ‘Wonnangatta’ again by an Australia – Angus Cerini, a synopsis mentions that it’s set in rural Victoria in 1918 and based on a murder that occurred there back then. It can be described as a murder Western or “Australian gothic”and refers to the brutality of the Australian bush and its isolation as well as themes such as trauma that come from the history of an essentially colonised land. I really look forward to seeing this one too and definitely all of them.
As the theatre’s creative director – Ms Kalogirou cites, the choice of these particular Australian plays were intended to encapsulate if not the, then an essence of modern Australia. In this case the fortunate, predominantly Greek audience in Greece get the chance to take this journey through the transcendent time-space continuum that is good theatre, – this time it’s our home grown, Aussie theatre.
And speaking of home grown, there’s a surprise play on very soon at the Aggelon Vima theatre, more specifically related to Greek Australians! Watch this space …
